


third time's the charm?

by pennylogue



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Family Feels, Funny, Gen, Light Angst, POV Outsider, Post-Steven Universe: The Movie, Pre-Episode: s01e01 Gem Glow, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-13 16:35:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20585621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennylogue/pseuds/pennylogue
Summary: The Gems have a special surprise for Steven! But he's acting a little strangely...Or, post-movie Steven wakes up on the morning of Gem Glow and reacts appropriately.





	1. Pearl

**Author's Note:**

> Things to expect from this fic: Steven absolutely smashing the timeline to pieces.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Steven said, "and after, we might do it all again," this was not what he meant.

Pearl allowed a smile to slip across her lips as she watched Amethyst—sitting on top of the fridge, _honestly—_finish shoveling Steven’s ice cream into the freezer. He was going to love this! This entire thing really had been a stroke of genius. Last time one of Steven’s favorite foods had been discontinued, he’d been inconsolable for days. She didn’t quite understand why humans had stopped making the ice cream, since if Steven liked it it was obviously as delicious as human food got, but at least they had enough treats to last him a few months.

Amethyst went to toss the last package of ice cream in the freezer, then hesitated. “Maybe I could just have one of these?” she half-asked. “We got so many!”

“Amethyst, no!” Pearl snatched it from Amethyst’s hand before it could get any closer to her mouth.

Amethyst huffed. “I was joking. C’mon, P. Ease up.”

“The important thing,” Garnet said, “Is that Steven will be happy. He’ll be getting up in an hour, so we should leave for this morning's missions now if we want want to be back by the time he finds out."

Amethyst shrugged. "Aye aye."

Above them, the floorboards squeaked. Pearl looked up and saw—Steven, already dressed. Staring at them with pure shock in his eyes.

Garnet’s mouth gaped slightly.

Amethyst fell off the fridge and landed clumsily on the counter.

“Steven, you’re up early!” Pearl exclaimed, trying to cover her nerves. Garnet hadn’t made a prediction this sheer level of _wrong_ in years.

Wordlessly, Steven walked down the steps and joined them in the kitchen.

“Hey, little man!” Amethyst declared, pulling herself into a sitting position. “Guess what?”

Oh no, this was not happening. Not before lunch. Greg had been clear on that. “Amethyst, he has to brush his teeth first, that’s very important!” Too late, she realized Steven was already opening the freezer. “Steven! Steven, don’t open that!” Strangely, he ignored her, and the door swung open to reveal the treasures inside.

“Aw, man,” Amethyst said. “You ruined the surprise. We were going to wait for you to find out, and then we were going to tell you—“

Steven took a single step backwards from the fridge, and Amethyst fell silent.

“Steven?” Pearl asked, playing with her fingers. “Is something wrong?” He was never this quiet, and that ice cream _absolutely _should have made him smile. And he usually closed the freezer's door because he wanted to “save the planet”. She wasn’t sure what a refrigerator had to do with being a Crystal Gem, but she’d learned just to nod and smile at these things.

Steven looked up at her, at the ice cream in the freezer, at Amethyst on the counter, at Garnet standing still—obviously still scanning through futures to find what went wrong—and fell to his knees and started to cry hysterically. "Come _on_!" he screamed. "Are you kidding me? This again?"

Pearl immediately joined him on the floor. “Steven, what’s wrong? Did you hear about the cat things?”

“Yeah!” Amethyst sprang from her ledge. “Everything’s fine! Don’t cry!”

Next to them, Garnet sank to one knee and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “What happened, Steven? You can tell us.”

Steven shook his head, wiping at his eyes with one hand. “No! Nope! I am _not_ doing this again."

Oh no. “Steven! Did something damage your fragile psyche?”

Amethyst nodded. “Have some ice cream. Eating junk always makes me feel less like junk.”

Steven stood up abruptly and backed towards the door. “Okay, nope! Nope! I’m going to go get a Classic Dewey and forget this is reality for ten minutes. Steven gets a morning off before he puts you guys through several years worth of character development and emotional maturity for the second time in two days.” He reached behind him for the doorknob, missed it, reached up, opened the door and speed-walked backwards through it, and slammed it behind him.

Amethyst broke the silence. “Okay, what the fuck.”

"Amethyst!" What if Steven was still outside? Pearl turned to Garnet. "What should we do? What's wrong with him?"

Garnet ignored her. She was still kneeling on the floor, biting her lip.

There was a knock on the window. They all turned to it and saw Steven, standing on his tip-toes. He called through the crack in the window, “By the way Amethyst you shouldn’t feel defined by your inadequacies but by the awesome life you’ve built and all the cool stuff you do and Pearl you’re an amazing person and you deserve to live for yourself and Garnet you are made of love and that will always be enough love you guys bye!”

They watched him walk step backwards, go to the edge of the front porch, and jump off of it...and then heard the sound of him crashing onto the sand with a yelp. Then, more crying.

Pearl kicked the door open and rushed outside to check on him. His organic half was so vulnerable, who knew what kind of shape he was in?

Behind her, she could faintly hear Amethyst say, "Okay, so can I have a Cookie Cat _now_?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The original ending to this chapter--and honestly, the fic--featured Steven screaming "FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" at the ceiling. Which I mean...fair, but that's probably how I'd react more than Steven. Thank God for Amethyst, who the word was practically invented for.
> 
> And I mean, if I had to go through all that shit again, I'd cry, too.


	2. Sadie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Steven is unable to so much as buy a donut without bringing out maternal instincts.

The store had been open for less than ten minutes, so Sadie was still half-asleep at the cash register when she heard the bell over the door ring. One of the early risers, then, probably Mr. Smiley or something. That man did _not_ sleep. She scraped herself off the counter only to spot…

“Steven Universe?” she asked, half squinting in the early-morning fluorescent light. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here this early. What’s up?”

Steven looked up from where he was wandering around the side of the store, staring at the empty Cookie Cat freezer. “Oh um, hey, Sadie. I actually wanted to ask you something really, really important.” He paused. “Do you know what’s happening with the Cookie Cats?”

She’d never really heard anything from corporate, but there hadn’t been a shipment of Cats in two weeks, so the Big Donut had finally run out. She should've figured that Steven wouldn't be happy about this. “I’m sorry, Steven,” she said. “I guess they stopped making them.”

She expected something like a dramatic scream—Steven was such a drama queen, it was honestly pretty funny, and this wasn’t exactly the end of the world. Instead, he just let out a long, deep groan, and knocked his head into the freezer.

“Are you okay?” Sadie asked tentatively. Steven usually didn’t get moody, as far as she’d noticed.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m good, I’m fine. As long as this isn’t my mom’s room acting up somehow, or more Diamond stuff, or a simulation by another of Pink’s enemies, or who knows, maybe it’s more dream powers and I’m still asleep! Or virtually anything! It could be another time thing!”

Ix-nay on the “not usually moody”, then. She shrugged.

Steven shook his head. “Yeah, sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to dump all that on you. It’s just…I need to figure this out. Maybe I’ll tell you later. Gem stuff, you know.”

Sadie quirked an eyebrow. “Isn’t that good, though?” He shook his head. Had he already forgotten? “Last week,” Sadie prompted him. “Literally just last week, you were talking about how the Crystal Gems never trust you with Gem stuff, and all you wanted to do was go on missions and be part of the team and help save the world.” Steven shrugged. "It was like four days ago! Didn't you say it was everything you’d ever wanted, or something like that?”

Steven looked down and clutched at his stomach. “Yeah,” he said, finally. “I guess I did say that.”

“Okay,” Sadie decided. “You’re being really weird. What’s going on?” 

Steven, now staring into the infinite depths of the donut display with a strangely blank expression, didn't say anything. But someone else broke the awkward silence.

“Since when is Steven being weird weird?” She glanced past Steven to the front of the store. Sure enough, there was Lars. Only fifteen minutes late, for a change, but that didn’t mean she was going to let him walk all over Steven like that. Someone had to stand up for the little guy. But before she could say anything, Lars continued, “Uh, Steven? Is there something on my face? Why are you looking at me like that?”

She checked across the counter. And yeah, Steven was now staring at Lars, and he actually seemed kind of freaked out, looking at Lars like he was a ghost or something. This was even stranger than the other stuff. She’d never seen him send Lars anything but endless--mostly undeserved and entirely unreciprocated--positivity.

After a sec, Lars slapped back on his usual scowl and slouch and joined them at the counter. “Heya? Earth to Steven? Do you want a donut? What are you doing here, anyway? It’s barely six.”

“It’s almost six twenty, Lars,” Sadie said.

Lars shrugged, the jerk.

Meanwhile, Steven finally shook himself out of his weird funk. “Yeah! Oh, yeah, can I get a Dew—a donut with strawberry icing?”

Lars jumped over the counter—stupid long, lean legs—and started ringing Steven up while she got a paper bag for the donut.

“Sounds good, anything else?” Sadie asked.

Steven didn’t respond.

Steven was, she realized, just…staring into space again, gazing vaguely at the Cookie Cat freezer. Gem stuff or ice cream, he was pretty torn up about something. She hesitated. She didn’t know Steven super well. He was just the sweet kid who came in to get donuts almost every day.

But most days, he had a smile on his face. Most days, he spun around the store like it was the best place in the world, admiring donuts he'd seen exact copies of hundreds times before, and spent a minimum of five minutes picking out the perfect donut.

“Steven?” Sadie finally asked. “Is there something you need to talk about?”

She could practically feel Lars’ what-are-you-doing stare, but she ignored him. This was important.

“Probably,” Steven said. “I…Yeah. Yeah. Actually, could you make that two donuts? I really wish I could talk to you about this, it’s just really complicated. Really, really, really complicated. But--"

“Don’t worry about it.” She tossed another strawberry donut in the bag, then handed it over the counter. “On the house.”

“Sadie!” Lars hissed. She waved him off.

“Oh, really?” Steven asked. Sadie nodded. Finally, she got a grin out of him—bright and bold as normal, thankfully. ”Thanks, Sadie! Lars!” He backed out of the store.

“I had no part in this!” Lars called after him.

The door closed with a quiet ding. Outside, Steven took off, heading deeper into Beach City.

"Seriously," Lars said. "That's not coming outta my paycheck."

Sadie ignored him, as usual. “So what was that about?” she asked, half-talking to herself. “He seemed….really upset? No…I don’t know. It was weird. Something's definitely weird.”

Lars shrugged. “This is Steven we're talking about. He's sad that we're not selling Cookie Cats anymore, or something stupid like that. I’m just surprised he didn’t ask to take the freezer with him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a difficult time with multichapters, but I'm pretty excited for this and the response has been really nice, and it's just a fun fic. And hey, two chapters, that's a record. I'mma give this my best go!
> 
> No prizes to whoever guesses who the second donut for.


	3. Greg (1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Steven enjoys a very disappointing donut.

People had a lot of hate to spare for guys who lived in their cars, but it honestly wasn’t too bad once you got used to it. Especially in a town as safe--yeah, there monsters, but there were also Crystal Gems, and the monsters tended to discourage normal crime, anyway--and as sleepy as Beach City. Besides, living in your van was cheap as heck, and could be surprisingly comfy to boot.

Sure, it had its share of downsides. Like last year, Greg had gotten a coupon for a free massage from Barb, who’d found it jumbled in the abandoned mail and practically insisted he take it. When he’d cashed it in, the poor guy who'd been assigned to massage him had turned pale two minutes in and had started to cry before the ten minute mark. Greg had felt pretty awful about the whole thing and offered to forget the massage, but they’d insisted he stay. Apparently, the Master Masseuse had wanted to take care of him personally. She only took “challenging cases” that “caught her interest”. At that point, it turned into this whole thing and it would have been rude to leave….

All this to say, a decade and change of sleeping in a car apparently did really weird things to the human spine, but Greg Universe was still used to spending the night sound asleep in his van. 

What he wasn’t used to was someone shouting indecipherably at him and hammering on his van’s sides in the middle of the night. Sleep-dazed, Greg grabbed the first heavy object his hand touched and charged out the back door, expecting a fight with a drunk tourist--

And finding his son, who jumped backwards to dodge a flailing waffle iron before grinning up at Greg, as rosy cheeked as usual.

“Morning, Dad!” Steven said. “Sorry for waking you up! But you should really get a cell phone.”

Greg dropped the waffle iron back into his van and sighed in quiet relief, then reached up to rub at his blurry eyes. “And call who? This town has like twenty people in it, and they’re all in walking distance. Steven, what are you doing up so late?”

Steven frowned. “It’s like eight in the morning.”  
  
Greg looked up at the sky, and found the sun shining low over the ocean. Not the middle of the night, then. Shit. He felt his cheeks go warm. “Then what are you doing up so early?” he asked, pushing on. 

“Guess,” Steven said, hiding one hand behind his back. 

Greg circled around to check what Steven was hiding, but Steven rotated in place. Greg kept circling, and Steven kept spinning. Finally, Greg lunged out and snatched behind Steven’s back, grabbing--

"You came by with donuts?” He winked down at Steven, who’d caught his balance from almost falling over in an awkward position--knees bent and palms braced outwards. “Well, if you're going to wake your old man up, at least you brought the right equipment!" 

That startled a giggle out of Steven. Nice. Greg plunked himself down on the edge of his van and patted the spot next to him. “C’mon, sit down and let’s eat!” The brown paper bag crinkled as he opened it. Strawberry, shining seductively from the top of a crisp golden donut. Once again, nice. 

Steven went to join him, but hesitated at the lip of the van. 

“You, uh, need help getting up?” Greg asked. Steven did kind of have to heave himself up to get into the back of the van, but he hadn’t needed help in ages.

“No, no, I got it!” Steven awkwardly crawled up next to him. He took the offered donut and sniffed it with a wide smile. “These sure look great!”

* * *

“So I was standing in line behind them," Greg continued, "Telling them all about the bits, _proclaiming_ to them, practically singing a prayer to the god of bits! And they just ignored me and ordered plain old french fries.”

“At the _ Fryman’s _ place?” Steven asked.

Greg shrugged and took another bite of donut. “Tourists, man. Fryman looked happy, at least. Probably doesn’t want any more of us off-menu degenerates.”

“We’re despicable.” Steven shook his head, trying--and utterly failing--to hold a stern look. Greg chuckled.

The silence stretched between them, loose and comfortable. Greg popped the last bite of his donut into his mouth and savored the sweetness. A surprise visit from his son, junk food first thing in the morning, a beautiful sunny sky and the breeze against his bare feet. The perfect start to his day.

Or it should be.

But something was off. There was an elephant in the room, and try as he might, Greg couldn’t hold himself back from bringing it up any longer.

“Steven, aren't you going to eat your donut?" Greg asked.

Steven stared at his donut, still resting fresh and plump on top of the paper bag. “Oh, yeah, sure. In a minute.”

“Not eating donuts the minute you get them? Steven!" Greg said in mock-horror. He wagged a finger. "I thought I raised you better than that.”

Steven laughed, just long enough for it to come off as a little forced. “No. I’m just...not that hungry."

Which would have been a lot more convincing if his stomach didn’t decide that was a good time to growl audibly.

"You sure about that?" Greg asked. 

“Fine. Sure. I’ll eat it,” Steven huffed. He reached out to grab the donut--but before he could, Greg took the bag, holding it out of Steven’s arm reach.

“Steven, you don’t have to eat it if you don’t want it," Greg said. "I’m sure I can rustle up something from the fridge.”

Steven shook his head and and stood up, reaching for the donut. “No, I’m being dumb. I have to eat sooner or later. Just give it here.”

“Steven--”

With surprising force, Steven grabbed the donut out of his hand. He pushed it into his mouth, chomping a huge bite--

And immediately groaned out a long, massive, “_Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy._” 

“Um, Steven?” Greg asked. “Are you okay? Did you get the wrong flavor?”

Steven plopped back down onto the van, chewing mournfully. "My donut didn't turn into a cloud." He swallowed and took another bite. 

Right. Greg cleared his throat. “So, you’ll never guess what happened. I was digging around in my stuff yesterday, since it was such a slow day--you know, I didn’t have a single customer? There’s usually at least one! Anyway, I found a whole box of albums I’d completely forgotten about! Trust me, you’re going to love them.” He stood up, turning to go deeper into the van.

“And now you’re acting like Sadie, wow, I’m awful at this…” Greg heard Steven mumble under his breath. Before Greg could say anything, Steven spoke up, "So, Dad? I didn’t just come to share donuts.”

No kidding. “Yeah, you seem a little stressed, Schtuball.”

“I guess I do. I don’t even know where to—oh geez, how do I even explain this?” Steven leaned against the inside of the van.

“Just say what’s on your mind,” Greg suggested. 

“What’s on my mind,” Steven muttered, resting his face in his hands. “Dad, what’s on my mind right now is that I have the world’s worst case of deja vu."

Pearl must have been serious about teaching Steven vocabulary straight out of the dictionary, Greg noted. Well, whatever worked. 

"Something absolutely crazy happened," Steven continued. "But it’s like—it’s the kind of thing where if I even say it, it’s…it’s just a lot. And I have no idea how it even happened."

Greg's mind raced. Steven had been acting weird that morning--a little less enthusiastic and silly than his usual goofball self. Greg had chalked it up to the early hour, but was he having a fight with one of his friends? Did he see something weird on the Internet? Did he hear about the Cookie Cats thing?

"Alright." Steven took a deep breath. "So there was this Gem--"

Oh.

That kind of crazy.

Of course. He'd been stupid to think it could be something else. 

Greg heaved an internal sigh, and put his hands up. “Woah, woah, hang on a sec.”

Steven looked up between his fingers. 

“Steven, this crazy stuff, is it magic crazy?”

“Yeah.”

“Like, Gem crazy?” Greg asked, heart sinking.

“I’m going to go with a probably.”  
  
“Steven, I'd love to help, I'm just...not sure I'm the right person to talk to. The Crystal Gems are the experts on this kind of stuff. They're supposed to be helping you with this, in ways that your normal old dad just...can't.” Greg shrugged, tamping down on his disappointment.

Steven didn’t say anything.

“Steven?” Greg asked. “I’m sorry, I really wish I could help.”

Slowly, Steven got to his feet. “Dad,” he said, “I know you think you can’t help with Gem stuff.” He clenched his fists and looked Greg right in the eye, and the sheer determination and confidence in Steven’s expression almost knocked the breath out of Greg’s lungs. “But this isn’t just Gem stuff. It’s _ me _ stuff. And right now, I really, really need your help.” 

And to top it all off, Steven started to tear up. 

Greg immediately felt like a massive heel. “Steven, I’m sorry. Of course I’m here for you. I just thought you’d rather talk to the Gems about something like this, but if you need me, I’m here.” He reached further into the van, getting some tissues. “Here, buddy.”

Steven wiped a tear from his eye and took the box. “Thanks. I think I used to cry even easier.”

“No," Greg said with a small smile. "You've always been a crier, just like your mom. You know that. I hate to break it to you, Steven, but you’re not making much sense.”

Steven slumped back down on the floor, wiping at his nose. “I’m not surprised," he groaned. "See, there’s something I have to do. Well, actually a lot of things I might have to do, like so many things to do and people to help it is kind of killing me, but _especially_ this. And I’ll do it. It’s fine. I can totally do it. I just...really don’t want to do it _again_. Once? Absolutely. Twice? Alright, that was weird, but we figured it out. Three times? I’m calling it, the universe is a hack.”

Greg waited.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting Steven to say. A corner of his mind was still hoping, somehow, that this was about Cookie Cats.

But if someone were to walk up to him and offer a packed house in Empire City for his best guess, it sure as hell would not have been: “I’m like…seventy percent sure I’m from the future.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got stupid long, so it's cut in half. Hope you enjoy the cliffhanger :D I leave up to the reader's discretion what exactly went down with the Master Masseuse.
> 
> Okay, so the reason I said "no prizes" was because it seemed obvious to me that he was going to talk to Greg to try to figure things out? Guess it wasn't. Oops. Honestly wasn't trying to jerk you guys around. 
> 
> Also, thank you guys so much for the lovely comments! They're great motivation, and they've been so much fun to read.


End file.
